Dissertations are like a labyrinth.
Many people do them.
Those who don’t, have little idea of how they work.
From the outside, it looks like a massive monolith.
Once you get into it, you realise how much there is.
It’s easy to avoid the journey altogether if you have false ideas.
Perhaps some people have scared you about it.
Negative experiences with dissertations are common.
But they shouldn’t cloud your judgement on whether you should do one.
So here are 10 common myths that you might have heard about dissertations.
1. Dissertations are hard
I’m going to get attacked for this one.
Cause it’s technically not a myth.
There’s a lot of work that goes into a dissertation.
I feel that a lot of people overestimate how hard dissertations are.
There are lots of things to consider with a dissertation:
- Your topic
- Your supervisor
- Your deliverables
- Your work timeline
All these things need to be established with your best interest at heart.
Choose a topic you are interested in.
Work with a supervisor that you have a good relationship with. Craft a work timeline that fits within your schedule.
A good amount of the “hardness” of a dissertation, can simply be removed if you play your cards right.
It’s easy to look at someone else’s dissertation and think “Oh my, that’s way too hard for me.”
What’s hard for one person is easy for someone else.
Once you create a dissertation that works for you, it’s probably not going to be as hard as you initially think.
2. My dissertation must be original
This one catches everyone out.
Even me.
We start scavenging through papers, trying to find new ideas to research.
It doesn’t need to be some big new thing.
Approaching an existing concept with a new angle is just as impressive.
UG dissertations are more about introducing you to research, rather than the originality.
So it’s actually a lot better to use existing concepts.
You end up with a wide range of papers to choose from for your literature review.
Besides, researching something brand new will require more:
- Resources
- Time
- Funding
All things that you don’t tend to have a lot of anyway (if any).
3. I must do a dissertation on my passion
Sigh.
There’s an element of truth to this one.
I did my dissertation on music and the church: two things that are very important to me.
It definitely made me enjoy the dissertation process more.
I wouldn’t say it’s by force to do a dissertation on your passion though.
It’s very easy to have too big of a scope (the problem I fell into) because everything seems interesting.
And there’s always the thing of getting sick of a project, even if it’s your passion.
Do a dissertation on something you’re interested in.
I think that’s a better wording.
4. I have to do my dissertation myself
Nope. Well, kinda?
In essence, most of the work is your own. It’s your dissertation.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the resources available to you.
Your supervisor is there to help you navigate your dissertation.
They are able to:
- Source papers relating to your topic
- Read over your dissertation for corrections
- Find people you can talk to
Making use of your supervisor is in your best interest.
They are there to help you.
You aren’t just restricted to your supervisor either.
Lecturers and professors across the university are available for you to reach out to.
Stand on the shoulders of giants.
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
5. A dissertation is just a long essay
I thought this too.
It’s more of a written discussion.
Before you even do that, there’s a lot of:
- Data analysis
- Interviews
- Meetings
- Deliverables
It’s not just the final 10-15k word document.
Writing the dissertation is not as simple as throwing a bunch of sources and calling it a day.
Most people reading your dissertation won’t know your topic to a high degree.
You have to consider every decision and choice, with that in mind.
You have to justify everything.
Simple example:
You used Zoom to organise meetings. Why not Google Meet?
Could write a sentence justifying that. Maybe even 300 words.
People should be able to follow your thought process and understand why certain decisions were made.
You don’t typically do this in a standard essay.
One thing that helped me with writing my dissertation was to create a narrative.
It’s like telling a story.
What’s the main conflict? What are the solutions? Which one will work? Why?
Academic writing doesn’t have to be static.
It can have a bit of life in it.
6. I need 100+ sources to validate my dissertation
Quality over quantity.
First of all, I don’t know if markers actually read through every single source that is mentioned.
They might.
I assumed they just scan it and check that it’s somewhat valid.
You don’t need 20 sources validating why you are using Python over JavaScript.
You only need 1. Maybe 2.
The quality of your source matters a lot more than the number of sources that you have.
This is why it’s important to get your lit review out of the way as soon as possible.
You can find these quality sources before you even start writing the dissertation.
7. I need to have a final clear-cut answer at the end
Everything isn’t black and white.
The world is a lot more complicated than that.
There are many research questions that simply won’t have a clear answer.
That doesn’t make them pointless to look into. It just means that the value of the research is from another perspective.
Perhaps it’s from exploring the project in a different angle?
Or applying the concept in a different field?
Doing these things doesn’t mean the answer will be obvious.
But it can help to provide useful insights to a given topic.
Find value from contributing interesting ideas to a field. Not from calculating the answer to curing cancer.
8. My dissertation must be perfect
Perfectionist alert!
Honestly same. I was a major perfectionist during my dissertation.
It really held me back from progressing, and I found myself working harder than I needed to.
It took the whole year for me to break it.
Now, as I’m embarking on my 2nd dissertation, I’m a lot more receptive to submitting things that are “good enough”
Good enough, surprisingly, is good enough.
9. A dissertation is harder than doing more modules
Depends a lot on your course.
In my experience, this isn’t always true.
At my uni, if you don’t do a dissertation, you have to do two 20-credit modules.
And whilst they might look easier, each module will have its own requirements and demands.
There isn’t the best selection of modules either.
And don’t forget the context switching that occurs when you balance more modules.
Two 10-credit modules is a bigger workload than one 20cr module.
The same could be said about two 20-credit modules vs. dissertation.
The other thing that a dissertation gives you is flexibility.
You control how you spend your time.
The deadlines are fairly reasonable and if you want to get your dissertation done in a semester, you can.
You wouldn’t really have that flexibility with two 20cr modules.
10. Dissertations won’t add much to my CV
You gain a LOT of skills from doing a dissertation.
- Research
- Critical thinking
- Time management
- Public speaking
- Independent work
They are a great way to develop domain knowledge outside of your degree subject.
Both of my dissertations specialize in my music interests.
I’ve purposely done this because there’s a fair amount going on in the music and tech intersection.
It’s also what I enjoy, and it’s a lot easier to stand out as an applicant if you have domain knowledge.
A bank is more likely to hire a software engineer with insight in the finance industry than a standard software engineer.
Even if your dissertation topic doesn’t relate to your job, it’s a great talking point in interviews.
If you built software as part of your dissertation, that’s work experience right there.
Closing thoughts
There’s a lot to dissertations. They aren’t easy.
Being afraid of them makes sense.
But before you make the decision to take one (or not) it’s important you have all the facts about it.
From someone who thought my dissertation was going to be hellish, it actually turned out ok.
I had a lot of extenuating circumstances, due to things happening outside of my dissertation.
But the actual dissertation was alright.
I thought I was going to spend countless nights crying. But I didn’t
So, don’t stress!
You got this!
In a byte,
Demi The Techie👩🏾💻
